Henrik Ibsen's

Act III

(The same scene. All the doors are standing open. The lamp is
still burning on the table. It is dark outside, except for a
faint glimmer of light seen through the windows at the back.
MRS. ALVING, with a shawl over her head, is standing in the
conservatory, looking out. REGINA, also wrapped in a shawl, is
standing a little behind her.)

Mrs. Alving. Never mind. He is sure to come back soon. I will go
and see what he is doing. (Goes out by the garden door. MANDERS
comes in from the hall.)

Manders. Isn't Mrs. Alving here?

Regina. She has just this moment gone down into the garden.

Manders. I have never spent such a terrible night in my life.

Regina. Isn't it a shocking misfortune, sir!

Manders. Oh, don't speak about it. I scarcely dare to think about
it.

Regina. But how can it have happened?

Manders. Don't ask me, Miss Engstrand! How should I know? Are you
going to suggest too–? Isn't it enough that your father–?

Regina. What has he done?

Manders. He has nearly driven me crazy.

Engstrand (coming in from the hall). Mr. Manders–!

Manders (turning round with a start). Have you ever followed me
here!

Engstrand. Yes, God help us all–! Great heavens! What a dreadful
thing, your reverence!

Manders (walking u¢ and down). Oh dear, oh dear!

Regina. What do you mean?

Engstrand. Our little prayer-meeting was the cause of it all,
don't you see? (Aside, to REGINA.) Now we've got the old fool, my
girl. (Aloud.) And to think it is my fault that Mr. Manders
should be the cause of such a thing!

Manders. I assure you, Engstrand–

Engstrand. But there was no one else carrying a light there
except you, sir.

Manders (standing still). Yes, so you say. But I have no clear
recollection of having had a light in my hand.

Engstrand. But I saw quite distinctly your reverence take a
candle and snuff it with your fingers and throw away the burning
bit of wick among the shavings.

Manders. Did you see that?

Engstrand. Yes, distinctly.

Manders. I can't understand it at all. It is never my habit to
snuff a candle with my fingers.

Engstrand. Yes, it wasn't like you to do that, sir. But, who
would have thought it could be such a dangerous thing to do?

Manders (walking restlessly backwards and forwards) Oh, don't ask
me!

Engstrand (following him about). And you hadn't insured it
either, had you, sir?

Manders. No, no, no; you heard me say so.

Engstrand. You hadn't insured it–and then went and set light to
the whole place! Good Lord, what bad luck!

Manders (wiping the perspiration from his forehead). You may well
say so, Engstrand.

Engstrand. And that it should happen to a charitable institution
that would have been of service both to the town and the country,
so to speak! The newspapers won't be very kind to your reverence,
I expect.

Manders. No, that is just what I am thinking of. It is almost the
worst part of the whole thing. The spiteful attacks and
accusations–it is horrible to think of!

Mrs. Alving (coming in from the garden). I can't get him away
from the fire.

Manders. Oh, there you are, Mrs. Alving.

Mrs. Alving. You will escape having to make your inaugural
address now, at all events, Mr. Manders.

Manders. Oh, I would so gladly have–

Mrs. Alving (in a dull voice). It is just as well it has
happened. This Orphanage would never have come to any good.

Manders. Don't you think so?

Mrs. Alving. Do you?

Manders. But it is none the less an extraordinary piece of ill
luck.

Mrs: Alving. We will discuss it simply as a business matter. Are
you waiting for Mr. Manders, Engstrand?

Engstrand (at the hall door). Yes, I am.

Mrs. Alving. Sit down then, while you are waiting.

Engstrand. Thank you, I would rather stand.

Mrs. Alving (to MANDERS). I suppose you are going by the boat?

Manders. Yes: It goes in about an hour–

Mrs. Alving. Please take all the documents back with you. I don't
want to hear another word about the matter. I have something else
to think about now.

Manders. Mrs. Alving–

Mrs. Alving. Later on I will send you a power of attorney to deal
with it exactly as you please.

Manders. I shall be most happy to undertake that; I am afraid the
original intention of the bequest will have to be entirely
altered now.

Mrs. Alving. Of course.

Manders. Provisionally, I should suggest this way of disposing
of it: Make over the Solvik property to the parish. The land is
undoubtedly not without a certain value; it will always be useful
for some purpose or another. And as for the interest on the
remaining capital that is on deposit in the bank, possibly I
might make suitable use of that in support of some undertaking
that promises to be of use to the town.

Mrs. Alving. Do exactly as you please. The whole thing is a
matter of indifference to me now.

Engstrand. You will think of my Sailors' Home, Mr, Manders?

Manders. Yes, certainly, that is a suggestion. But we must
consider the matter carefully.

Engstrand (aside). Consider!–devil take it! Oh Lord.

Manders (sighing). And unfortunately I can't tell how much longer
I may have anything to do with the matter–whether public opinion
may not force me to retire from it altogether. That depends
entirely upon the result of the inquiry into the cause of the
fire.

Engstrand (lowering his voice). And Jacob Engstrand isn't the man
to desert a worthy benefactor in the hour of need, as the saying
is.

Manders. Yes, but, my dear fellow-how–?

Engstrand. You might say Jacob Engstrand is an angel of
salvation, so to speak, your reverence.

Manders. No, no, I couldn't possibly accept that.

Engstrand. That's how it will be, all the same. I know someone
who has taken the blame for someone else on his shoulders before
now, I do.

Manders. Jacob! (Grasps his hand.) You are one in a thousand! You
shall have assistance in the matter of your Sailors' Home, you
may rely upon that.

(ENGSTRAND tries to thank him, but is prevented by emotion.)

Manders (hanging his wallet over his shoulder). Now we must be
off. We will travel together.

Engstrand (by the dining-room door, says aside to REGINA). Come
with me, you hussy! You shall be as cosy as the yolk in an egg!

Regina (tossing her head). Merci!

(She goes out into the hall and brings back MANDERS' luggage.)

Manders. Good-bye, Mrs. Alving! And may the spirit of order and
of what is lawful speedily enter into this house.

Mrs. Alving. Goodbye, Mr. Manders.

(She goes into the conservatory, as she sees OSWALD coming in by
the garden door.)

Engstrand (as he and REGINA are helping MANDERS on with his
coat). Goodbye, my child. And if anything should happen to you,
you know where Jacob Engstrand is to be found. (Lowering his
voice.) Little Harbour Street, ahem–! (To MRS. ALVING and
OSWALD.) And my house for poor seafaring men shall be called the
"Alving Home," it shall. And, if I can carry out my own ideas
about it, I shall make bold to hope that it may be worthy of
bearing the late Mr. Alving's name.

Mrs. Alving. Shut the doors, Regina. (REGINA shuts the doors and
remains standing by the hall door. MRS, ALVING takes off her
shawl; REGINA does the same. MRS. ALVING draws up a chair near to
OSWALD'S and sits down beside him.) That's it! Now I will sit
beside you–

Oswald. Yes, do. And Regina must stay in here too; Regina must
always be near me. You must give me a helping hand, you know,
Regina. Won't you do that?

Regina. I don't understand–

Mrs. Alving. A helping hand?

Oswald. Yes–when there is need for it.

Mrs: Alving. Oswald, have you not your mother to give you a
helping hand?

Oswald. You? (Smiles.) No, mother, you will never give me the
kind of helping hand I mean. (Laughs grimly.) You! Ha, ha! (Looks
gravely at her.) After all, you have the best right.
(Impetuously.) Why don't you call me by my Christian name,
Regina? Why don't you say Oswald?

Regina (in a low voice). I did not think Mrs. Alving would like
it.

Mrs. Alving. It will not be long before you have the right to do
it. Sit down here now beside us, too. (REGINA sits down quietly
and hesitatingly at the other side of the table.) And now, my
poor tortured boy, I am going to take the burden off your mind–

Oswald. You, mother?

Mrs. Alving. –all that you call remorse and regret and self-
reproach.

Oswald. And you think you can do that?

Mrs. Alving. Yes, now I can, Oswald. A little while ago you were
talking about the joy of life, and what you said seemed to shed a
new light upon everything in my whole life.

Oswald (shaking his head). I don't in the least understand what
you mean.

Mrs. Alving. You should have known your father in his young days
in the army. He was full of the joy of life, I can tell you.

Oswald. Yes, I know.

Mrs. Alving. It gave me a holiday feeling only to look at him,
full of irrepressible energy and exuberant spirits.

Oswald. What then?

Mrs. Alving, Well, then this boy, full of the joy of life–for he
was just like a boy, then–had to make his home in a second-rate
town which had none of the joy of life to offer him, but only
dissipations. He had to come out here and live an aimless life;
he had only an official post. He had no work worth devoting his
whole mind to; he had nothing more than official routine to
attend to. He had not a single companion capable of appreciating
what the joy of life meant; nothing but idlers and tipplers...

Oswald. Mother–!

Mrs. Alving. And so the inevitable happened!

Oswald. What was the inevitable?

Mrs. Alving. You said yourself this evening what would happen in
your case if you stayed at home.

Oswald. Do you mean by that, that father–?

Mrs. Alving. Your poor father never found any outlet for the
overmastering joy of life that was in him. And I brought no
holiday spirit into his home, either.

Oswald. You didn't, either?

Mrs. Alving. I had been taught about duty, and the sort of thing
that I believed in so long here. Everything seemed to turn upon
duty–my duty, or his duty–and I am afraid I made your poor
father's home unbearable to him, Oswald.

Oswald. Why didn't you ever say anything about it to me in your
letters?

Mrs. Alving. I never looked at it as a thing I could speak of to
you, who were his son.

Oswald. What way did you look at it, then?

Mrs. Alving. I only saw the one fact, that your father was a lost
man before ever you were born.

Oswald (in a choking voice). Ah–! (He gets up and goes to the
window.)

Mrs. Alving. And then I had the one thought in my mind, day and
night, that Regina in fact had as good a right in this house–as
my own boy had.

Oswald (turns round suddenly), Regina–?

Regina (gets up and asks in choking tones). I–?

Mrs. Alving. Yes, now you both know it.

Oswald. Regina!

Regina (to herself). So mother was one of that sort too.

Mrs. Alving. Your mother had many good qualities, Regina.

Regina. Yes, but she was one of that sort too, all the same. I
have even thought so myself, sometimes, but–. Then, if you
please, Mrs. Alving, may I have permission to leave at once?

Mrs. Alving. Do you really wish to, Regina?

Regina. Yes, indeed, I certainly wish to.

Mrs. Alving. Of course you shall do as you like, but–

Oswald (going up to REGINA). Leave now? This is your home.

Regina. Merci, Mr. Alving–oh, of course I may say Oswald now,
but that is not the way I thought it would become allowable.

Mrs. Alving. Regina, I have not been open with you–

Regina. No, I can't say you have! If I had known Oswald was ill–
And now that there can never be anything serious between us–.
No, I really can't stay here in the country and wear myself out
looking after invalids.

Oswald. Not even for the sake of one who has so near a claim on
you?

Regina. No, indeed I can't. A poor girl must make some use of her
youth, otherwise she may easily land herself out in the cold
before she knows where she is. And I have got the joy of life in
me too, Mrs. Alving!

Regina. Oh, what's going to happen will happen. If Oswald takes
after his father, it is just as likely I take after my mother, I
expect.–May I ask, Mrs. Alving, whether Mr. Manders knows this
about me?

Mrs. Alving. Mr. Manders knows everything.

Regina (putting on her shawl). Oh, well then, the best thing I
can do is to get away by the boat as soon as I can. Mr. Manders
is such a nice gentleman to deal with; and it certainly seems to
me that I have just as much right to some of that money as he–as
that horrid carpenter.

Mrs. Alving. You are quite welcome to it, Regina.

Regina (looking at her fixedly). You might as well have brought
me up like a gentleman's daughter; it would have been more
suitable. (Tosses her head.) Oh, well–never mind! (With a bitter
glance at the unopened bottle.) I daresay someday I shall be
drinking champagne with gentlefolk, after all.

Mrs. Alving. If ever you need a home, Regina, come to me.

Regina. No, thank you, Mrs. Alving. Mr. Manders takes an interest
in me, I know. And if things should go very badly with me, I know
one house at any rate where I shall feel at home.

Mrs. Alving. Where is that?

Regina. In the "Alving Home."

Mrs. Alving. Regina–I can see quite well–you are going to your
ruin!

Regina. Pooh!–goodbye.

(She bows to them and goes out through the hall.)

Oswald (standing by the window and looking out). Has she gone?

Mrs. Alving. Yes.

Oswald (muttering to himself). I think it's all wrong.

Mrs. Alving (going up to him from behind and putting her hands
on his shoulders). Oswald, my dear boy–has it been a great shock
to you?

Oswald (turning his face towards her). All this about father, do
you mean?

Mrs. Alving. Yes, about your unhappy father. I am so afraid it
may have been too much for you.

Oswald. What makes you think that? Naturally it has taken me
entirely by surprise; but, after all, I don't know that it
matters much to me.

Mrs. Alving (drawing back her hands). Doesn't matter!–that your
father's life was such a terrible failure!

Oswald. Of course I can feel sympathy for him, just as I would
for anyone else, but–

Mrs. Alving. No more than that! For your own father!

Oswald (impatiently). Father–father! I never knew anything of my
father. I don't remember anything else about him except that he
once made me sick.

Mrs. Alving. It is dreadful to think of!–But surely a child
should feel some affection for his father, whatever happens?

Oswald. When the child has nothing to thank his father for? When
he has never known him? Do you really cling to that antiquated
superstition–you, who are so broad-minded in other things?

Mrs. Alving. You call it nothing but a superstition!

Oswald. Yes, and you can see that for yourself quite well,
mother. It is one of those beliefs that are put into circulation
in the world, and–

Oswald. And I know how fond you are of me, and I ought to be
grateful to you for that. Besides, you can be so tremendously
useful to me, now that I am ill.

Mrs. Alving. Yes, can't I, Oswald! I could almost bless your
illness, as it has driven you home to me. For I see quite well
that you are not my very own yet; you must be won.

Oswald (impatiently). Yes, yes, yes; all that is just a way of
talking. You must remember I am a sick man, mother. I can't
concern myself much with anyone else; I have enough to do,
thinking about myself.

Mrs. Alving (gently). I will be very good and patient.

Oswald. And cheerful too, mother!

Mrs. Alving. Yes, my dear boy, you are quite right. (Goes up to
him.) Now have I taken away all your remorse and self-reproach?

Oswald. Yes, you have done that. But who will take away the fear?

Mrs. Alving. The fear?

Oswald (crossing the room). Regina would have done it for one
kind word.

Mrs. Alving. I don't understand you. What fear do you mean–and
what has Regina to do with it?

Oswald. Is it very late, mother?

Mrs. Alving. It is early morning. (Looks out through the
conservatory windows.) The dawn is breaking already on the
heights. And the sky is clear, Oswald. In a little while you will
see the sun.

Oswald. I am glad of that. After all, there may be many things
yet for me to be glad of and to live for–

Mrs. Alving. I should hope so!

Oswald. Even if I am not able to work–

Mrs. Alving. You will soon find you are able to work again now,
my dear boy. You have no longer all those painful depressing
thoughts to brood over.

Oswald. No, it is a good thing that you have been able to rid me
of those fancies; if only, now, I could overcome this one thing–
(Sits down on the couch.) Let us have a little chat, mother.

Mrs. Alving. Yes, let us. (Pushes an armchair near to the couch
and sits down beside him.)

Oswald. The sun is rising–and you know all about it; so I don't
feel the fear any longer.

Mrs. Alving. I know all about what?

Oswald (without listening to her). Mother, isn't it the case that
you said this evening there was nothing in the world you would
not do for me if I asked you?

Mrs. Alving. Yes, certainly I said so.

Oswald. And will you be as good as your word, mother?

Mrs. Alving. You may rely upon that, my own dear boy. I have
nothing else to live for, but you.

Oswald. Yes, yes; well, listen to me, mother, You are very
strong-minded, I know. I want you to sit quite quiet when you
hear what I am going to tell you,

Mrs. Alving. But what is this dreadful thing–?

Oswald. You mustn't scream. Do you hear? Will you promise me
that? We are going to sit and talk it over quite quietly. Will
you promise me that, mother?

Mrs. Alving. Yes, yes, I promise–only tell me what it is.

Oswald. Well, then, you must know that this fatigue of mine–and
my mot being able to think about my work–all that is not really
the illness itself–

Mrs. Alving. What is the illness itself?

Oswald. What I am suffering from is hereditary; it–(touches his
forehead, and speaks very quietly)–it lies here.

Mrs. Alving (almost speechless). Oswald! No–no!

Oswald. Don't scream; I can't stand it. Yes, I tell you, it lies
here, waiting. And any time, any moment, it may break out.

Mrs. Alving. How horrible–!

Oswald. Do keep quiet. That is the state I am in–

Mrs. Alving (springing up). It isn't true, Oswald! It is
impossible! It can't be that!

Oswald. I had one attack while I was abroad. It passed off
quickly. But when I learned the condition I had been in, then this
dreadful haunting fear took possession of me.

Mrs. Alving. That was the fear, then–

Oswald. Yes, it is so indescribably horrible, you know if only it
had been an ordinary mortal disease–. I am not so much afraid of
dying; though, of course, I should like to live as long as I can.

Mrs. Alving. Yes, yes, Oswald, you must!

Oswald. But this is so appallingly horrible. To become like a
helpless child again–to have to be fed, to have to be–. Oh,
it's unspeakable!

Mrs. Alving. My child has his mother to tend him.

Oswald (jumping up). No, never; that is just what I won't endure!
I dare not think what it would mean to linger on like that for
years–to get old and grey like that. And you might die before I
did. (Sits down in MRS. ALVING'S chair.) Because it doesn't
necessarily have a fatal end quickly, the doctor said; he called
it a kind of softening of the brain–or something of that sort.
(Smiles mournfully.) I think that expression sounds so nice. It
always makes me think of cherry-coloured velvet curtains–
something that is soft to stroke.

Mrs. Alving (with a scream). Oswald!

Oswald (jumps up and walks about the room). And now you have
taken Regina from me! If I had only had her, she would have given
me a helping hand, I know.

Mrs. Alving (going up to him). What do you mean, my darling boy?
Is there any help in the world I would not be willing to give
you?

Oswald. When I had recovered from the attack I had abroad, the
doctor told me that when it recurred–and it will recur–there
would be no more hope.

Mrs. Alving. And he was heartless enough to–

Oswald. I insisted on knowing. I told him I had arrangements to
make–. (Smiles cunningly.) And so I had. (Takes a small box from
his inner breast-pocket.) Mother, do you see this?

Mrs. Alving. What is it?

Oswald. Morphia powders.

Mrs. Alving (looking at him in terror). Oswald–my boy!

Oswald. I have twelve of them saved up–

Mrs. Alving (snatching at it). Give me the box, Oswald!

Oswald. Not yet, mother. (Puts it back in his pocket.)

Mrs. Alving. I shall never get over this!

Oswald, You must. If I had had Regina here now, I would have told
her quietly how things stand with me–and asked her to give me
this last helping hand. She would have helped me, I am certain.

Mrs. Alving. Never!

Oswald. If this horrible thing had come upon me and she had seen
me lying helpless, like a baby, past help, past saving, past
hope–with no chance of recovering–

Mrs. Alving. Never in the world would Regina have done it.

Oswald. Regina would have done it. Regina was so splendidly
light-hearted. And she would very soon have tired of looking
after an invalid like me.

Mrs. Alving. Then thank heaven Regina is not here!

Oswald. Well, now you have got to give me that helping hand,
mother.

Mrs. Alving (with a loud scream). I!

Oswald. Who has a better right than you?

Mrs. Alving. I! Your mother!

Oswald. Just for that reason.

Mrs. Alving. I, who gave you your life!

Oswald, I never asked you for life. And what kind of a life was
it that you gave me? I don't want it! You shall take it back!

Oswald (going into the hall). You shan't go out. And no one shall
come in. (Turns the key in the lock.)

Mrs. Alving (coming in again). Oswald! Oswald!–my child!

Oswald (following her). Have you a mother's heart–and can bear
to see me suffering this unspeakable terror?

Mrs. Alving (controlling herself, after a moment's silence).
There is my hand on it.

Oswald. Will you–?

Mrs. Alving. If it becomes necessary. But it shan't become
necessary: No, no–it is impossible it should!

Oswald. Let us hope so. And let us live together as long as we
can. Thank you, mother.

(He sits down in the armchair, which MRS. ALVING had moved beside
the couch. Day is breaking; the lamp is still burning on the
table.)

Mrs. Alving (coming cautiously nearer). Do you feel calmer now?

Oswald. Yes.

Mrs. Alving (bending over him). It has only been a dreadful fancy
of yours, Oswald. Nothing but fancy. All this upset has been bad for
you. But now you will get some rest, at home with your own mother, my
darling boy. You shall have everything you want, just as you did
when you were a little child.–There, now. The attack is over.
You see how easily it passed off! I knew it would.–And look,
Oswald, what a lovely day we are going to have? Brilliant
sunshine. Now you will be able to see your home properly. (She
goes to the table and puts out the lamp. It is sunrise. The
glaciers and peaks in the distance are seen bathed in bright
morning fight.)

Oswald (who has been sitting motionless in the armchair, with his
back to the scene outside, suddenly says:) Mother, give me the
sun.

Mrs. Alving (standing at the table, and looking at him in
amazement). What do you say?

Oswald (repeats in a dull, toneless voice). The sun–the sun.

Mrs. Alving (going up to him). Oswald, what is the matter with
you? (OSWALD seems to shrink up in the chair; all his muscles
relax; his face loses its expression, and his eyes stare
stupidly. MRS. ALVING is trembling with terror.) What is it!
(Screams.) Oswald! What is the matter with you! (Throws herself
on her knees beside him and shakes him.) Oswald! Oswald! Look at
me! Don't you know me!

Oswald (in an expressionless voice, as before). The sun–the sun.

Mrs. Alving (jumps up despairingly, beats her head with her
hands, and screams). I can't bear it! (Whispers as though
paralysed with fear.) I can't bear it... I Never! (Suddenly.) Where
has he got it? (Passes her hand quickly over his coat.) Here!
(Draws back a little spay and cries :) No, no, no!–Yes!–no, no!
(She stands a few steps from him, her hands thrust into her hair,
and stares at him in speechless terror.)